UK Pornography Traffic Falls After Age Verifications, But Virtual Private Network Use Spikes, Reports Watchdog

Access to pornography sites in the UK has decreased markedly since the roll-out of age-checking measures this summer, as reported by the country's communications watchdog. Concurrently, the usage of specialist software designed to circumvent these restrictions has surged.

Sharp Drop in Visitor Numbers Following Rule Enforcement

The introduction of age vetting on 25 July led to an prompt reduction in traffic to leading online adult platforms, including the most visited site in the UK. Figures shows that visitor numbers to this platform in August stood at 9.8 million, a decrease of 1.5 million compared to the same period in 2024.

In total, visitor numbers to the ten top pornography sites in the UK have now stabilized at a significantly reduced level than before the end-of-July deadline. Later analysis suggests this downward trend in site visits continued past August.

Sharp Increase in VPN Adoption to Bypass Restrictions

In response to the new rules, use of VPN software—which can get around location-based restrictions by masking connections through another nation—more than doubled after 25 July.

User numbers peaked at over 1.4 million in mid-August, up from around 650,000 users before the checks began. Subsequently, the watchdog noted that VPN usage has afterwards steadily declined, with current figures at approximately 900,000. It clarified that the volume of regular VPN use remains “much lower” than user numbers for adult sites.

Young People Taking Action to Damaging Material

Elsewhere, the watchdog's report found that about 60% of young people aged 11 to 17 had taken action after encountering harmful content on the internet. Actions ranged from flagging the content to the site to blocking the user who shared it.

This research was carried out prior to new rules came into force that require platforms to stop children from accessing harmful content, such as material related to suicide and adult material. The most common way teenagers came across such content was by scrolling through a social media feed, indicating that recommendation systems were serving harmful material.

Ministers Launch Examination of Adult Content Laws

In a related development, the government stated it would review the legislation governing pornography to assess whether it is effective in the ever-developing digital age.

“The review will investigate the efficacy of the existing law in regarding making illegal, for example, damaging portrayals of familial abuse and any forms of pornography which encourage the abuse of children,” said a justice minister.

Advocates Call For Stricter Digital Controls

Advocates for better regulation of adult content have called on the authorities to outlaw so-called “barely legal” material. This includes content featuring simulated familial abuse or that encourages child sexual abuse by casting young-looking adults portraying children.

Suggested changes to legislation aim to:

• Prohibit pornography where performers are mimicking children, often filmed in environments like children’s bedrooms.
• Broaden the offence of making an exploitative portrayal of a child to cover material where an adult plays the role of a child.
• Introduce tighter controls on familial abuse pornography, which research suggests is often promoted by site algorithms.
• Add additional restrictions on “nudification” software, potentially making it an illegal act to own tools designed to generate non-consensual nude images.
• Create a new, separate oversight agency to conduct spot checks on adult platforms and respond to complaints of unlawful content.

The campaigners argue that these measures would ensure the safeguards that have existed for decades in the physical world finally are extended to the digital age.